Game changer: Turkey allows U.S. to use of Incirlik air base for attacks on ISIS

One senior administration official described the agreement as a “game changer.”

Under the deal, the United States will be allowed to launch manned and unmanned flights from Incirlik. Before the agreement was reached, only unmanned drone flights were allowed.

Referring to operational security, the White House declined to confirm the agreement. White House spokesman noted, though, that Obama and Erdogan had agreed to “deepen our cooperation” against IS in their phone call Wednesday.

“Turkey is a critical partner in degrading and defeating ISIL, and we appreciate the essential support Turkey provides to the international coalition across the many lines of effort,” said Alistair Baskey, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council.

The large Incirlik Air Base is located across the border from the Syrian city of Aleppo. Under a NATO arrangement, the base is a joint U.S.-Turkish installation which is home to the U.S. Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing. Its proximity to IS-controlled areas in Syria makes it an ideal launching pad for U.S. airstrikes against IS. Turkey shares a 775-mile border with Syria and with Iraq.

Analysts note that it is unclear whether Turkey, in exchange for allowing the United States to use Incirlik, has received assurance from the United States that the U.S.-led coalition would now take on Assad more forcefully. The White House did say, however, that Obama and Erdogan had decided to deepen cooperation on “our work to bring about a political settlement to the conflict in Syria.”

The agreement on Incirlik was only one of a series of moves indicating Turkey’s growing cooperation with the United States in the fight against ISIS.

“Turkey has also taken many important steps to curb the flow of foreign fighters,” Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a statement Thursday, adding that the foreign fighter problem is not Turkey’s alone.

Analysis
The BBC defense correspondence Jonathan Marcus says that Turkey appears to have abandoned its studied ambivalence toward IS and, since Thursday, has weighed in with air strikes and the shelling of IS targets in Syria and a wave of arrests of IS sympathizers at home.

The decision by Ankara to allow U.S. warplanes to strike IS targets from its base in Incirlik should be understood in the context of a shifting Turkish policy on Syria.

Western analysts and decision makers have argued that for too long, Turkey prioritized the removal of Bashar al-Assad and its own volatile relations with the Kurds, rather than join in the effort to defeat ISIS.

Islamic State, however, has over-played its hand — earlier in the week, a suicide bombing blamed on IS militants killed thirty-two people in southeastern Turkey — proving that it represented a clear security threat to Turkey which Ankara could no longer ignore.